1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telecommunications, and, more particularly, to wireless communications.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of wireless telecommunications, such as cellular telephony, a system typically includes a plurality of base stations distributed within an area to be serviced by the system. Various users within the area, fixed or mobile, may then access the system and, thus, other interconnected telecommunications systems, via one or more of the base stations. Typically, a mobile device (also known as user equipment (UE)) maintains communications with the system as the mobile device passes through an area by communicating with one and then another base station. The mobile device may communicate with the closest base station, the base station with the strongest signal, the base station with a capacity sufficient to accept communications, etc. Further, each base station may be in communication with a large number of mobile devices.
In a cellular communications system, it is common to transmit a reference signal along with each data signal. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the reference signal generally makes it easier to properly detect the data signal, especially in non-ideal environments. Accordingly, a large number of reference signals may be needed to support a large number of mobile devices with active communication links. In a reverse link (i.e., from the mobile device to the base station), at least one reference signal is needed for each mobile device. Thus, the number of mobile devices that can be supported in the physical layer may be limited by the number of reference signal sequences that can be generated.